On Their Way

Sarah and Hannah are on their way to Australia!  We are meeting them in Sydney tomorrow afternoon.  It's going to be great to be in Sydney for New Year's Eve.  We are going to sightsee in Sydney until Monday and then fly up to Cairns to hang out on the beach until Friday.  We are flying to Launceston Friday and driving to Hobart Saturday so I can run in a half-marathon on Sunday.  We should be able to blog from Sydney, but probably not from Cairns. 

Hydrangeas

I met a new friend for coffee today.  She is the wife of one of the registrars (residents) at the hospital.  Ben and I went out to dinner with them a couple of weeks ago.  I had noticed there were tons of hydrangeas out in Prince's Square, a park near where we had coffee, so we went over there afterwards to take some pictures.  Hydrangeas are probably my favorite flower.

Christmas Dinner

Ben got home a little early from work last night (around 5:15) and lit the grill.  While we waited for the coals to heat up we started with some appetizers.

We had prawns with a dip made of tomato sauce, mayo, and sweet chili sauce, fried olives stuffed with feta, and crackers with a store bought sundried tomato, cashew, and parmesan dip.  While Ben grilled the steaks I worked on the side dishes.



Don't worry mom, that is sauce on the plate, not blood from the meat.:)  She's a vegetarian.



The beef was delicious!  It was King Island beef.  King Island is an island between Victoria and Tasmania.  We were very impressed  with the quality of the meat.  The sauce I made was a pomegranate-pinot noir sauce.  Honestly, I think the beef didn't need any kind of sauce.  We also had garlic chili broccolini, parmesan potatoes, and homemade cheese bread.  We opened the last of our gifts and had dessert.

We had pavlova.  It is a popular dessert in Australia.  I wanted to make it from scratch, but we don't have a mixer and you need it for the recipe.  It is cake-like, lightly crisp on the outside, and moist on the inside.  I topped the store bought pavlova with whipped double cream, lemon butter, mixed berries, and icing sugar.  What a fun and delicious Christmas meal. 

Now it is time to get ready for Sarah and Hannah's arrival in Australia!  I will be cleaning, running errands, and packing this week while Ben works and we leave Friday to meet the girls in Sydney for New Year's Eve! 



Merry Christmas!

My mom sent our stockings from home.  I've had mine since I was born!

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Ben and I opened a few gifts last night and some more this morning before he went to work and will open more tonight after our Christmas dinner.  Our families were so good to us and sent lots of gifts!  My mom and Wayne got their gifts in the mail today.  I was so relieved.  It doesn't really feel like Christmas with the weather being so warm, Ben at work, and we're not with our families but I know we are going to have a great dinner tonight.  Stay tuned for a post with pictures of our fancy meal. 

Flurry of Fairy Wrens

The weather was glorious here yesterday so Ben and I went for a walk on one of my new favorite running paths.  It is called the North Esk River trail.

We must have seen at least twenty of our favorite little bird, the Superb Fairy Wren.

We even saw some fairy wren babies.

It's Christmas Eve!  I'm going for a run soon and to pick up some last minute groceries for our big Christmas dinner tomorrow.  Ben is working today and tomorrow but only until 6 so we can celebrate in the evening.  My mom and Wayne's gifts haven't gotten to them yet and I am quite sad about that.  I'm hoping they will get there tomorrow.

Another Day, Another Hike

We drove about an hour yesterday to tackle the Meander Falls walk.  Luckily we had new hiking shoes because this was quite the walk.

We didn't bring our hiking shoes with us from the States because we didn't realize how much hiking we would be doing here.  We finally broke down and bought new ones a couple of days ago.  It made a big difference on the hike.  We actually didn't end up completing the whole walk.  Two and a half hours in we were exhausted and realized we better turn around before it got dark. 


Check out that elevation gain! My watch died on the way back so the hike was actually around 5 miles and took 5 hours-phew! 

We ate lunch on this bridge.

We may have to do this hike again sometime and complete the whole thing.  Ben found online what the falls look like at the end of the hike and they are gorgeous! 

Laughing Kookaburra

We wandered through Carr Villa park in nearby Kings Meadows a couple of days ago.  We found a laughing kookaburra and heard him laughing in the woods.  It's a haunting laughter, listen here:

Click to go to music file